Ian Holliday had to pull out all the stops and it took a new championship record to retain his high jump title.

The former Gateshead Harrier, now competing for Sale, lives close to the Shildon complex which stepped in to host the championships after being switched from Gateshead because of the re-laying of the track surface.

A ding-dong battle took place between Holliday and Morpeth's French junior international Jerome Geoffroy, but it was the Durham jumper who prevailed.

Both jumpers had a failure at 2.05m before clearing at their second attempt. The bar was moved to 2.08m, which Geoffroy cleared with ease, but it took two attempts for the reigning champion to negotiate.

The bar was moved up to 2.11m, one centimetre higher than the existing record which Holliday set five years ago.

Both jumpers failed with their first efforts, but Holliday cleared at his second attempt. And although Geoffroy, a 2.18m jumper as a junior which earned him international honours, came close, he had to be content with second place on this occasion.

With the bar now at 2.14m, Holliday was unlucky on all three attempts but nevertheless was extremely pleased to win and improve his record, albeit by just one centimetre.

"That's my first competition of the summer so I have to be satisfied. I came close to clearing 2.14 with all my three jumps so I think I'm capable of going close to 2.20m this season."

For Geoffroy, there was the consolation of improving on his 2.05 which he cleared last week in a Northern League match.

"I'm happy with that today," he said. "It was a good competition despite the windy conditions. Ian jumped very well."

Gateshead's Karen Johns was the most successful of the women athletes at the championships, picking up gold medals in the 400m, 800m and 1500m, all of which were won with comparative ease.

However, like the senior men's action, only one new record fell to the women and that was in the Javelin where Gateshead's Kristine Richie added three metres to the old figures.

The former Northern Ireland Schools' champion, now at Northumbria University, winged the javelin out to 38.53 metres to relegate title-holder Stacey Mohammed into second place.